Assassin of Truths(45)

Bastien wrapped his arms around me, and I rested my head on his shoulder. "I'll help you catch them. So will Demos. Lei and Jaran will be there, as well. You're not alone, Gianna."

I tilted my head to look at him. He gently kissed my lips, and my heart finally forgave him.

"I'm most terrified of losing you," I said.

He flashed a crooked smile. "Never going to happen."

"Are you always so sure of everything?"

"Not everything," he said. "I doubted you would ever come to your senses and realize I was the better man for you."         

     



 

"You never doubted that."

"All right." He laughed. "I knew you'd come around. Besides, who could resist me?"

I laughed that time. "You're so full of yourself sometimes."

"I was raised to never lie, weren't you?"

"Yes, of course."

"Then tell me a truth about yourself." Amusement sparkled in his eyes and flipped my stomach.

This game made me uneasy. "I have a mean uppercut and knee strike."

He frowned. "How about something about you, not something you can do."

"I have thick hair."

He stifled a laugh. "This makes you uncomfortable, doesn't it?"

"So uncomfortable."

"How about I start?"

"Okay."

"I once caught the pantry on fire," he said. "Odil and I were nine and eight, respectively. He warned me not to play with matches. My brother was my best friend growing up. I looked up to him. Then he changed, became more self-centered. I miss the Odil from our youth. It crushes my heart to see how he's turned out."

"That has to be hard," I said.

"Now you."

"I wish my mother was still alive. She's a shadow in my mind. I'm not sure which memories are my own and which are ones I've made up from the photographs and videos I've seen of her." I glanced away, hiding the sadness noticeable in my eyes.

"That must be difficult." He lifted my chin and kissed me again, his lips soft and tender. "All right, then, I'll stop torturing you."

Screams broke out somewhere in the distance, and I pulled away from him. "That can't be good."

Bastien scrambled off the stump at the same time as I grabbed my scabbard and jumped to my feet. We dashed out of the dining tent. Shouts and screams came from the village. We ran toward the sound.

I struggled to strap my scabbard to my waist as we sprinted up the hill. It slipped a couple of times before I got the buckle fastened. The closer we got to the area, the more my heart sank. It was coming from the curer's building.

Oh no. Carrig.

The Red stopped me before I could charge inside.

"Let me through." I pushed against him. "Carrig!"

"What is happening in there?" Bastien asked.

"A mad woman is inside," The Red said. "The coven's guards are handling it."

"That won't do. They haven't any magic." Bastien brushed by him and produced an electric charge in his upturned hand.

I hurried behind him. A Laniar with dark hair falling to his shoulders blocked the entry into the room. Beside him was a Djallican girl, not much older than me, with small horns sticking out of her wide forehead, long earlobes, and short spikey hair the color of cinnamon. The two guards pointed their swords at a woman whose face I couldn't see with the uniformed bodies blocking my view.

"Let us through," Bastien commanded.

The guards glanced behind them and, spotting the electricity in Bastien's hand, stepped aside.

"Accendere il ghiaccio." I ignited an ice globe and weaved around the guards, almost tripping when I saw the woman. Fear grabbed my breath, and I gasped.

Lorelle. She stood over Carrig, a large dagger to his throat. I hadn't seen her since she hit me with an ancient spell that stole my truth globe from me. She had murdered my aunt Eileen and posed as her to spy on Nana and to find me.

"Step away from him, Lorelle," I warned, holding my globe up higher for her to see.

Her screeching laugh scratched across my scalp and rattled down my bones. "I'm not Lorelle. Her brain was a blank canvas after the scryers had their way with her. Easy for me to move in. Usually, I can only claim the mind of a magical child, but here I am in the shell of a Fey. Drop your magic, or I'll cut him."

I stumbled back, fear choking my throat. Not Lorelle?

Bastien lowered his hands, the electric spark between them snuffing out, but I refused to bust my globe. I processed the information she'd given us.

The scryers had used their magic to gain information on Conemar after Lorelle's arrest for trying to destroy me. If she wasn't Lorelle, then who was she? And it hit me.

No. It can't be. But the clues in her statement gave me all I needed to know who she was.

"What do you want with Carrig, Ruth Ann?"

"Conemar was right," she said. "You are a smart little girl, aren't you?"

Ruth Ann was a Bane Witch from Branford, Connecticut, who had been sentenced to death during the witch trials in the sixteen hundreds.

"You didn't answer me. Why Carrig? He isn't a threat to anyone in his state."         

     



 

"He may wake up. He is the leader of the Sentinels and is too powerful and persuasive to let live. Too much of a risk for Conemar." Her grin looked sinister, and her eyes held evil, her hand lifting a little and the blade leaving Carrig's neck.

She noticed her hand had moved, and she returned the blade to Carrig's skin.

The ice globe on my palm bit at my skin. I could stop her. Throw my globe when she was distracted again. So I waited, not feeling scared, not panicking, just watching her and waiting for my moment to strike.

"I will trade his life for Katy Kearns," she said.

"We cannot make that trade," a voice came from a hologram image on the counter opposite Carrig's bed. It was Queen Titania, and beside her was Nana. In the background, Sinead slept in her hospital bed. My heart crushed in my chest.

"Hell, no, they can't," I affirmed. "What do you need her for-?" I stopped, knowing exactly what Ruth Ann was after. "You want to possess her body because she's skilled in the magic of Incantora."

Bastien slid a confused look at me. I couldn't explain it to him, so I shook my head.

Nana had never used the Incantora, saying with that power came responsibility. She had been a young girl when it was discovered that she had the power. Her mother had forced Nana to make a witch's pledge to only use it when preventing a major disaster that could cost many lives, not just one or a few. Since there was magic behind her promise, she'd face grave consequences if she ever broke it.

"This is not a deal we are willing to make," Queen Titania said.

Nana turned her head toward me. "I'm sorry, Gia."

"Not your fault." I focused back on Lorelle before my eyes could fill with tears.

Ruth Ann glared at the hologram. "I'll give you one minute. That is all. Make the deal, or I will kill him." She held the long dagger above Carrig's chest and watched the antique clock on the table beside the bed.

And that was her mistake.

One minute. So much could change in just a moment. I could lose a father I'd only recently discovered. The Mystik world could lose one of the greatest Sentinels in their history. Deidre could lose the only father she'd ever known. And her mother, since Sinead would die with him. Such a small amount of time to lose so much.

One minute.





Chapter Twenty


Ruth Ann's decision to move Lorelle's hand away from Carrig's neck to above his chest gave me a better opportunity to hit her.

I eased my hand back, the glittery white globe spinning on my palm.

"No, you'll hit Carrig," Bastien hissed, grabbing my arm and causing my globe to slip from my hand.

It busted against the floor, and ice shot across the wooden planks.

Anger twisted Ruth Ann's face. A guttural growl escaped her lips and she slammed the dagger into Carrig's chest.

NO!

Electricity ignited between Bastien's hands, and he released the charge. The powerful stream hit Lorelle's body, and it crumpled to the ground. Ruth Ann's dark, smoky spirit shot out of Lorelle and frantically flew around the room, hitting things off the table and slamming into the two guards. She knocked Bastien to the floor.

My eyes followed her spirit, waiting for the perfect time when she crossed in front of me, then I shot my ice globe at her. The hazy form froze in the air and dropped, shattering against the ground in thousands of little pieces.

I darted to Carrig's side. His blood seeped into the sheet covering him. "No, no, no. Carrig! Someone help him." My pleading screams were almost incoherent.

Two curers, an older woman and a young man, came to his side.

"Get her back," the man said, pushing me aside and starting to work on Carrig.

Bastien wrapped his arms around me, and I yanked away from him.

The image of the curers working on Carrig was blurry with the tears pouring from my eyes. "Please. You have to save him. Please. Please."

The woman's eyes went to the hologram. "He's too weak. His wife's connection is draining his strength. They both will die."

"No," came out of me as a painful wail. Bastien reached for me again, and I shrugged him off.

"We must remove the bond," the man said, "or we'll lose them both. If we break it, he'll have a chance to survive."